Toys which employ features such as emission of a sound or production of a movement upon activation of the toy are very popular with children, particularly young children and infants. One marketing approach that toy manufacturers have successfully used, generally referred to as a xe2x80x9ctry-mexe2x80x9d feature, is to enable a potential purchaser to activate the feature while the toy is still packaged and on a store shelf, thus providing a sample of the feature that the toy will display during use.
In toys that emit a sound, the ambient noise level in a store where the toy is being sold may prevent the prospective purchaser from adequately hearing the sound which is being emitted, and/or the speaker which emits the sound may be covered or muffled by packaging which at least partially surrounds the toy, further preventing the prospective purchaser from adequately hearing the sound which is being emitted. If a toy is provided which produces a sound loud enough to be heard over ambient store noise and through the packaging, the sound would most likely be too loud for a small child, particularly an infant, to enjoy properly. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a toy which emits a sound which is loud enough to be heard through the packaging and the ambient noise in a store, yet which provides a lower volume of sound when being played with at home after being removed from the packaging so as not to be too loud for a small child to enjoy.
Still other toys employ try-me devices which operate a particular feature such as sound or movement for an abbreviated amount of time compared to the time that the feature operates in normal use. The consumer is required to activate a switch on the toy after the toy is removed from its packaging to activate the normal use feature. It would be beneficial to provide a toy which can operate for an abbreviated amount of time while in the packaging, and then, without any action on the part of the consumer apart from removing the toy from its packaging, operate the toy for a longer period of time after the toy is removed from the packaging.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a combination including a toy and a removable element inserted therein. The toy has a sound generator and an actuator therewith. The actuator enables the sound generator to generate a sound. An improvement in this combination comprises the removable element being operably connected to the sound generator such that the removable element enables the sound generator to generate a first volume of the sound and removal of the removable element enables the sound generator to generate a second volume of the sound which is different from the first volume of the sound.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a combination including a toy and a removable element inserted therein. The toy has a sound generator and an actuator therewith. The actuator enables the sound generator to generate a sound. An improvement in this combination comprises the removable element being operably connected to the sound generator such that the removable element enables the sound generator to generate a volume of the sound for a first duration of time and removal of the removable element enables the sound generator to generate the volume of the sound for a second duration of time which is different from the first duration of time.
In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a combination including a toy and a removable element inserted therein. The toy has a motion generator and an actuator therewith. The actuator enables the motion generator to generate a visible movement of the toy. An improvement in this combination comprises the removable element being operably connected to the motion generator such that the removable element enables the motion generator to generate a visible movement of the toy for a first duration of time and removal of the removable element enables the motion generator to generate a visible movement of the toy for a second duration of time which is different from the first duration of time.